{"id":562040,"date":"2026-03-26T12:30:08","date_gmt":"2026-03-26T12:30:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/562040\/"},"modified":"2026-03-26T12:30:08","modified_gmt":"2026-03-26T12:30:08","slug":"nobodys-baby-what-makes-justin-biebers-latest-career-revival-different","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/562040\/","title":{"rendered":"Nobody\u2019s baby: What makes Justin Bieber\u2019s latest career revival different"},"content":{"rendered":"

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

Justin Bieber performs his song Yukon during the Grammy Awards in Los Angeles on Feb. 1, 2026 \u2013 a performance that continues to resonate within the music industry.Kevin Winter\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

Justin Bieber\u2019s startling, scene-stealing solo performance at this year\u2019s Grammy Awards was the talk of music\u2019s so-called biggest night. He wore nothing but socks and boxers, unconcerned with professional decorum \u2013 or even basic \u201cno shoes, no service\u201d societal standards. <\/p>\n

The 32-year-old pop star showed up shorn-headed and unshaven; he could just as easily have been walking into the kitchen for a midnight piece of pie as he was leading up to the musical presentation of his life. <\/p>\n

After strumming an electric guitar riff into a looping device and setting a lonely beat into a drum machine, the tan and tattooed Canadian sang Yukon, a slow, vaguely reggae-ed ode to love and SUVs. Make that self-love \u2212 a full-length mirror stood next to him. <\/p>\n

This was a quiet, immaculate display of harmony and raw vulnerability by a pure musical animal appearing in front of an audience on his own terms.<\/p>\n

When it was over \u2212 and I mean, turn-out-the-lights, Vince Carter slam-dunk-competition \u201cit\u2019s over\u201d \u2212 a television camera panned to his socialite wife. Hailey Bieber flashed a hand gesture and satisfied look, as if to say, \u201cI told you so.\u201d Full credit to her for standing by her man-child.<\/p>\n

The performance was a surprising elevation from an artist whose career has been both phenomenal and checkered. Bieber has performed publicly just twice since 2021, and his 2025 LP Swag, which earned four Grammy nominations, was his first album in four years. <\/p>\n

Grammys 2026: The best, worst and weirdest moments of the night<\/a><\/p>\n

Health issues, both mental and physical, concert cancellations, creative lulls, self-admitted anger issues and enigmatic behaviour are part of a package that includes an often-awkward stage presence. His uncharismatic hosting of Saturday Night Live at the age of 18 in 2013, for example, was painful to watch.<\/p>\n

On stage at Crypto.com Arena for the Grammys in Los Angeles, however, Bieber owned his introverted nature spectacularly, like a reverse peacock.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnyone who saw it saw someone in complete control of who he wants to be as a creator,\u201d said Tyson Parker, executive director of Canada\u2019s Walk of Fame. \u201cThis was a man, not a boy, who has shed so many skins in his career, who stood there in his shorts and sang his heart out.\u201d<\/p>\n

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a>Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

Parker is a former vice-president with Universal Music Canada, Bieber\u2019s label in this country. He was there in 2010 when the swoop-haired teen idol from Stratford, Ont., released his breakout hit Baby, a sign of things to come: \u201cThought you\u2019d always be mine, mine \u2026 Now I\u2019m all gone.” <\/p>\n

Bieber has been a come-and-go guy from the start, his professional status and personal well-being ebbing and flowing unpredictably. One day he\u2019s among the world\u2019s hottest pop stars; the next moment he\u2019s troubled, bratty and irrelevant. <\/p>\n

There\u2019s more backsliding to Bieber than an Olympic luge trial.<\/p>\n

After the release of Swag (and the follow-up Swag II), Rolling Stone magazine dubbed Bieber the \u201ccomeback kid of the year.\u201d Time and time again, critics have applauded the singer\u2019s career upswings. But that media narrative is getting tired \u2212 at this point, the tail is swagging the dog. <\/p>\n

For every tantalizing Despacito (2017\u2019s English-language remix of the Luis Fonsi Latin-pop hit that featured the Biebs), there is a groaner single such as 2020\u2019s Yummy. When do we stop calling Bieber\u2019s frequent revivals \u201ccomebacks,\u201d and start recognizing his penchant for postponed shows, public gaffes and so-so albums for what it is: The frustrating ups and downs of a wildly inconsistent artist?<\/p>\n

After a hiatus marked by a cancelled North American tour and facial paralysis in 2022 he said was caused by Ramsay Hunt syndrome<\/a>, Bieber surprise-released Swag on July 11, 2025. Though it failed to debut at the top of the Billboard 200 chart and digital downloads were sluggish, the album\u2019s streaming numbers were high enough to suggest a resurgence. Mature, reflective and often spiritually minded lyricism from the God-fearing father of a toddler was a good sign as well. <\/p>\n

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

Fatherhood, family and faith have helped ground the pop star, industry watchers say.Renell Medrano\/Supplied<\/p>\n

Less than a month later, however, Bieber posted photos of himself on social media shooting an assault rifle and a pistol in an ammo-strewn open field. Shirtless, wearing flip-flops and his body fully inked, he looked more like a trailer-trash caricature than a pop icon.<\/p>\n

That said, Bieber is undeniably riding a wave. While he didn\u2019t convert any of his Grammy nods into statuettes, losing album of the year to Bad Bunny was no disgrace. <\/p>\n

At this weekend\u2019s Juno Awards in Hamilton, the eight-time winner is up for a career-high six trophies, tied for the most<\/a> with Calgary singer\/dancer Tate McRae. Next month, he headlines the taste-making Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival in Indio, Calif., along with Colombian singer-songwriter Karol G and Sabrina Carpenter.<\/p>\n

\u201cGood times, let\u2019s keep them rolling, baby let\u2019s enjoy the moment,\u201d Bieber sings on the icy-synthed Swag-opener All I Can Take. \u201cI got a gift, a-know it. I\u2019ll cherish it and hold it. There\u2019s a reason \u2212 there\u2019s a reason for all this.\u201d <\/p>\n

Bieber, it would seem, is in a good place. Parting ways with long-time manager Scooter Braun in 2023 and selling his publishing rights and artist royalties from his master recordings to Hipgnosis Songs Capital<\/a> in 2022 (for more than US$200-million, according to Billboard magazine) may have helped the singer get his swag back. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt seems like he has found a renewed sense of independence and transparency,\u201d said religion journalist Cathleen Falsani, who wrote the 2011 book, Belieber!: Fame, Faith and The Heart of Justin Bieber. \u201cAnd that was telegraphed with the stripped-down Grammy performance. There wasn\u2019t a lot of artifice to it. I think he\u2019s saying that\u2019s how he wants to be in the world now, which is how I believe he\u2019s always wanted to be.\u201d<\/p>\n

Throughout his career, Bieber has often posted about his religious devotion on social media. Falsani thinks Bieber\u2019s upbringing in a Canadian evangelical church helps keep him grounded. \u201cIt\u2019s an anchor,\u201d she says. \u201cThe boat might tip over, but Justin doesn\u2019t sink to the bottom.\u201d<\/p>\n

If not at the bottom, Bieber has often been underwater. In early 2014 as a 19-year-old, he was charged with driving under the influence, resisting arrest without violence and driving with an expired licence after a late-night drag-racing escapade<\/a> in Miami Beach. A week later, he turned himself in at a Toronto police station and was charged with assault<\/a> in connection with an attack on a local limousine driver in late 2013.<\/p>\n

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

Bieber performs in L.A. in 2016, after a series of public missteps took some of the teenage pop star\u2019s glamour away.The Associated Press<\/p>\n

Before that, he attracted criticism for writing in the guest book at the Anne Frank house in Amsterdam that he was sure the Holocaust victim \u201cwould have been a Belieber.\u201d In 2012, the Sorry singer was named Villain of the Year by British music magazine Kerrang! in the same year he earned Juno\u2019s Fan Choice Award.<\/p>\n

But now? He\u2019s a financially secure first-time father whose Swag II is up for album of the year at the Junos. While he won\u2019t perform at Sunday\u2019s gala, Bieber\u2019s star turn at the Grammys still reverberates within the industry.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere was a lot of emotion on the stage,\u201d said Allan Reid, president of the Junos and the Canadian Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences. \u201cI also felt he was reaching a new level of artistic expression.\u201d<\/p>\n

A memorable award-show appearance can significantly boost a career. Jessie Reyez\u2019s collaboration with Daniel Caesar on her song Figures at the 2018 Junos in Vancouver, for example, was one of Junos\u2019 most streamed pieces of content.<\/p>\n

Even a non-televised showcase can pay off. At the Ottawa Junos in 2017, William Prince\u2019s performance of Breathless during an in-memoriam segment at a private Junos dinner took breaths away.<\/p>\n

Three months later, Prince\u2019s manager at the time, Nathalie Kleinschmit, told Reid the positive reaction from the appearance changed her client\u2019s life.<\/p>\n

\u201cA strong performance can become a crystallizing moment,\u201d Reid said. \u201cIt can be career-defining.\u201d<\/p>\n

Justin Bieber returns with Swag, surprising fans with long-awaited seventh album<\/a><\/p>\n

Or career re-establishing. Bieber\u2019s striking Yukon staging at the Grammys confirmed his prodigious ability for anyone who may have forgotten. <\/p>\n

Some had not.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt Universal Music, we always knew Justin Bieber was a first-round talent,\u201d said Parker, using a sports analogy. \u201cThe songs were there and the image was there, right from the beginning.\u201d<\/p>\n

Parker doesn\u2019t characterize what\u2019s happening with Bieber today as a comeback. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt never has been because he\u2019s never really gone away. His capacity for reinvention is endless, and it feels like now that he\u2019s turning the page of a career arc that could be lifelong.\u201d <\/p>\n

The Juno Awards air live across Canada on Sunday at 8 p.m. ET, on CBC TV and CBC online platforms. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Open this photo in gallery: Justin Bieber performs his song Yukon during the Grammy Awards in Los Angeles…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":562041,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[901,888,902,879,877,903,49,48,876,895,896,891,878,875,46,549,75,295,894,887,914,880,881,893,889,890,884,904,341,885,909,910,912,907,911,905,908,882,898,899,714,897,906,865,61,900,892,886,883,913],"class_list":["post-562040","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-music","tag-alberta","tag-arts-news","tag-bc","tag-breaking-news","tag-breaking-news-video","tag-british-columbia","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-canada-news","tag-canada-sports","tag-canada-sports-news","tag-canada-trafficcanada-weather","tag-canadian-breaking-news","tag-canadian-news","tag-economy","tag-education","tag-entertainment","tag-environment","tag-federal-government","tag-foreign-news","tag-globe-and-mail","tag-globe-and-mail-breaking-news","tag-globe-and-mail-canada-news","tag-government","tag-life-news","tag-lifestyle","tag-local-news","tag-manitoba","tag-music","tag-national-news","tag-new-brunswick","tag-newfoundland-and-labrador","tag-northwest-territories","tag-nova-scotia","tag-nunavut","tag-ontario","tag-pei","tag-photos","tag-political-news","tag-political-opinion","tag-politics","tag-politics-news","tag-quebec","tag-sports-news","tag-technology","tag-travel","tag-trudeau","tag-us-news","tag-world-news","tag-yukon"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/562040","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=562040"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/562040\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/562041"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=562040"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=562040"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=562040"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}